THE SHIT OR SHITE? Young and Menace by Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy are a band in which have undoubtedly changed their sound over the years and have crossed the bridges between pop and rock. They have recently returned with their first proper new music since 2015’s American Beauty American Psycho, and have announced their latest album will be named M A N I A. With this announcement comes the release of the first single Young and Menace, and it definitely is a newFall Out Boy sound for fans to get used to.

THE SHIT

The song begins with a piano track playing and a synth sounding tone before Patrick Stump enters with his more than familiar voice. The track begins to build up with light guitar tones and a slow drum beat, before breaking into a massive chorus. The chorus of the song features elements of both rock as well as an almost electronic sound, a very strange combination. The chorus is mainly made up of distorted and broken up vocals and a fast drum beat, before blending into the next verse. The next verse is more upbeat than the first, yet vaguely similar.

There is again an almost identical build up into the chorus, before calmly going back into more of a softer tone. The last duration of the track is made up of the strange rock/electronic sound, which seems to work throughout. The track ends on a soft, calm vibe before abruptly ending. Overall, the track is ridiculously well produced, and the new sound the band is going for is strange, but oddly seems to work for them. It is a huge track to showcase for the album and will leave fans wondering what to expect from this new sounding FOB, and what is to come from the Chicago four piece.

7.5

SHITE

There seems to be a recurring trend lately with 00’s emo era rock bands: Linkin Park have went from nu-rock to…whatever the fuck their latest track was, Paramore swapping out their orange-haired punk stylings for sugary sweet pop and Fall Out Boy, for better or worse, have gone under a complete overhaul. Many will argue whether or not the band should have returned at all from their hiatus with 2013’s Save Rock and Roll, a discussion further enhanced by the release of American Beauty American Psycho, displaying the Chicago foursome as a parody of themselves that you’d expect to see in one of their old Infinity On High era videos.

Young and Menacedoesn’t do much to defuse this argument at all. As soon as the song starts, there’s this recurring vocal sample, edited beyond all belief that hints at something at cataclysmic. Preceded by Stump channeling his inner Britney Spears, the chorus belts in and, in all honesty, it’s more likely to incite laughter rather than anything resembling head banging. The constant pitch changing and dubstep esque warping makes the track feel more like a horrible fan edit you’d expect to introduce a Call of Duty no-scope video than the taster track to an upcoming album. If it weren’t enough to hear this all during the chorus then the concluding bridge will do enough to leave a sour taste in your mouth: it’s a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, adding to what was already an overflowing cauldron. The final punch in the stomach will befall you if your Spotify plays a suggested track from the band’s discography, chucking on Our Lawyer’s Made Us Change The Name Of This Song… as if to remind the listener that, yes, Fall Out Boy weren’t always a shell of their former selves.